Three detained for handing out flyers in Exarcheia

August 13, 2022
https://bentley.noblogs.org/post/2022/08/13/three-detained-for-handing-o...

This afternoon, Saturday August 13th, three people handing out handbills at the popular weekly outdoor market in Kallidromou, in Athens, were surrounded by the DELTA motorcycle squad, detained and brought to the police station for questioning.

The cops claim the three looked like suspects wanted in a robbery, but of course this is nonsense. Since an army of cops took over Exarcheia Square on August 8, Exarcheia has been under a full military-style police occupation, and the three were targeted because of their handbills.

This kind of "suspicion" of another crime is a common pretext to harass and intimidate suspected anarchists. People are rounded up, brought to the police station, put in a cell, their ID taken, questioned and maybe held "until the victim of the robbery can come make an identification." The supposed victim of the supposed robbery never shows; it's just political bullying.

As a small gesture of solidarity with these three and all others who are fighting the current and extreme police occupation of Exarcheia, I have translated the flyer they were handing out into English.

I would note that point 5, "We show solidarity/open doors to protesters," includes the most literal meaning. When there is active repression, it's common for sympathetic locals to offer protesters shelter in their homes or businesses.

TO ALL:
A CALL TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF EXARCHEIA

The daily intensity of the attack, in the context of gentrification and the violence of capital, is wide-ranging for workers, residents and political movements in the neighborhood. The rent increases, the evictions of tenants due to exploitation by REAL ESTATE predators, international capital and big investors, the conversions of apartments and entire buildings to AIRBNB, all ​​create a huge housing problem in the neighborhood, displacing those with lower incomes. The neighborhood's public schools are challenged every day, with classes emptied due to the inability of families to respond to rent increases, while the immigrants and the socially excluded who traditionally found refuge in Exarcheia "disappear" to detention centers or elsewhere, the targets of daily police operations ordered by the Municipality of Athens.

On August 9 at 4:30 a.m. there was an unprecedented operation by contractors accompanied by an occupying army to fence off Exarcheia Square with sheet metal. Since then, the square has been turned into a police-controlled construction site, as it's expected to remain for the next 8 years. In the next phase, they will excavate the square, the 70 trees in the square will be cut down, the only square in the neighborhood will be destroyed and political resistance will receive an irreparable injury, since the Square has been an emblematic point for counterpower movements from the post-colonial period through today.

At the same time, the attack on the social character of Strefi Hill is underway with the consttruction company TOMI AVETE (A subsidiary of AKTOR) having started the machinery to turn the hill into a tourist resort, a commercial zone, an area of social control that will result in its sterilization.

WE REJECT
-the imposed "development" of the city center and its transformation into a tourist resort.
-a vast construction site of contractors and startups, like the Great Walk.
-the destruction of spaces vital to the social fabric, such as the museumification of the Polytechnic.
-the sterilization of public universities, the looting of public and free spaces and green spaces.
-the increase in rents, the privatization of Strefi Hill, the conversion of residential neighborhoods into zones of commerce.

LET US SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE:

The forces of repression have occupied our neighborhood for the interests of businessmen.

01. We participate in the community assembly every Friday at 18:30 at Strefi theater

02. We hang banners or black flags from our balconies as a sign of protest and resistance

03. We discourage the police forces with slogans, shouting, banging pots

04. We record police brutality on video

05. We show solidarity/open doors to protesters

NO METRO STATION AT EXARCHEIA SQUARE

NO HANDOVER OF STREFI HILL TO PRIVATE INTERESTS

POLYTECHNIC WILL REMAIN A PLACE FOR MEETINGS AND RESISTANCE

FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE CULTURE OF RACISM, SEXISM AND AUTHORITY

RENT REDUCTIONS / NO EVICTIONS

MAFIA OUT OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD

— Coordinated Action for the Defense of Exarcheia

There are 5 Comments

are at seriois risk of counterattacks using cars..Short.of thst, if the front wheels are anything other thsn a sollid disc w no homes, a stick on the spokes will make.the bike pitch overhead, throwing rhe "Delta Pandemic of Pigs" on their faces.

Anarcho rioters did that, a while back, in better days of Greek insurrection. There used to be a tradition of arming with shovel or sledgehammer handles when going to demos, so no need for stupid cars.... that can also be smashed. They were both useful in melees against cops, Stalinists but also Deltas on motorcycles.

Dunno whatever happened with this tradition tho... I was always a fan of short, narrow steel water pipes as they're better for breaking windows n other stuff around.

In the opening days of the 2004 RNC protests in New York City, the NYPD had an aggressive plainclothes "street crime" unit of unmarked scooter cops. They avoided identifying themselves as cops but moved as a unit and acted like cops. They were extremely aggro and involved in mulitple illegal arrests. They did NOT however make it to the main days of direct action.

On the Monday after the huge public march, also the day before the main CD actions were to start, we had the Poor People's March, with the goal of getting as close as possible to the Convention Center. The plainclothes scooter cops were there and their behavior deteriorated as the night went on. Finally, one of them pushed someone too far-and apparently was either knocked or tackled right off of his scooter, ending up down on the asphalt where he belonged. The rest of the cops went nuts and the melee began.

The cops were NOT able to make mass arrests for some reason, even though that had manned barricades a block away in all directions, effectively a continuous, rolling kettle. Some tense negotiations got these roadblocks lifted, perhaps the cops remembered about the half million people the previous night and didn't want to join Scooter Man at the bottom of the pile, perhaps something else. They had to let people leave peacefully and without showing ID or any of the rest of that bullshit-and for the rest of the week, nobody ever saw another plainclothes scooter cop at any RNC protest event. Instead, a unit of uniformed scooter cops with considerably less aggro behavior took their place. This was an elite unit of thug cops, put in their place by protesters at the price of several people charged with APO over the one that got his comeuppance. Statutes of limitations for this are now over a decade past expiration.

Dear Luke,
It's 2022. Almost 2023.
Sincerely,
anarchists

Dear Pilgrim, you honor me. You're very beautiful. I offer one hundred prayers for your safety. Find help in John 6:22, 8:16 9:1; Luke l:7, 3:1; Galatians 6:11. 15:2; Acts 3:3; Revelations 18:1; Jonah 6:8.

Bless you, 6:6:6

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